Highlighting Government’s apathy towards providing relief to the people the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party said that Samajwadi Party Government had failed in right earnest to start preparations to combat flood.
Speaking to reporters here on Monday party’s chief spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said that monsoon has set in and within few days the rivers would be in spate. "The rivers in Uttarakhand are already flowing over danger mark and Uttar Pradesh will start feel the pinch within few days. Despite all these the State Government is yet to give its flood relief plan a final shape. The Government is still busy giving warnings to the officials. These warnings lack substance because officials know the last date of implementing plans is over," Pathak said.
The BJP spokesman said that Irrigation Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav claims Government has taken preventive steps to protect people from flood. He also knows that his department has failed to utilize almost 95 per cent of the Rs 725 crore Irrigation budget. The Government records show that only Rs 29.35 crore has been used.
"This record speaks volumes about government apathy. When the Government has failed to utilize money meant to combat flood how can it say it is ready to face the annual deluge," Pathak said and added: "The Minister had held review meetings and issued warnings on the paper only."
He said that 32 of the 75 districts of the state are flood prone. Many embankments like MP embankments, Elgin embankment, Chrari embankment and Sri Nagar embankment are threat to the villages. People have voiced fear over possible breach in these embankments. They have sent many petitions to the government but the Irrigation minister is yet to react to these appeals, he said.
"It is the high time government should act and take corrective measures so that people could be saved from the menace of floods," he said.